


Never Meet Your Heroes

by fazcinatingreads



Category: Cricket - Fandom, Seb gotch/Tim paine, Sports - Fandom, T20, bbl - Fandom, big bash, big bash league, fun - Fandom
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:34:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27159398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fazcinatingreads/pseuds/fazcinatingreads
Summary: Seb Gotch comes face to face with his childhood hero in a domestic T20 game
Kudos: 3





	Never Meet Your Heroes

Halfway through the second innings, Canes at 3/101 chasing the Stars' total of 200, they were looking good. Peter Handscomb was at the crease, twirling his bat around baseball-style, ready to hit another six.

Clint Hinchliffe rolled in and unleashed a pearler, and Pete's eyes lit up. Right where he wanted it. He skipped down the pitch and leapt upon the awaiting feast, his bat gliding gracefully through the air. 

But he missed.

The ball landed with a thud in Seb's gloves, and he whisked the bails off. "Sorry, skip," Seb said, as he ran past Pete on his way to celebrate with Clint. 

A flurry of wickets came next, and the Stars had their foot on the throttle. Tim Paine waltzed in next, doing a few shadow moves on his way to the crease.

"Hello," Seb chirped behind the stumps. He hadn't seen Tim since their swapping of shirts in the Shield game a few months ago.

"Howdy, cowboy," Tim murmured distractedly, limbering up for his first ball.

He smacked Glenn Maxwell's carrom ball for six and smiled as he watched it disappear into an empty part of Metricon Stadium.

"You gonna go fetch that?" Seb asked.

"Nah," Tim said.

After a few more sixes from Tim, Maxi attempted the carrom ball again and got him trapped dead in front. The umpire's finger went up.

"See ya, mate," Seb said cheerily to Tim's back as he made his way from the ground. Tim didn't look back as he trudged off.

The rest of the Canes' line up fell in quick succession, and the Stars elbow bumped and awkwardly hugged in victory. Seb shook hands with the Hurricanes players, pausing to chat with Scott Boland, James Faulkner and then Handscomb. He finally got to Tim Paine, who held out a limp hand and wouldn't make eye contact.

"Hey Tim," Seb said, fist bumping Tim's hand enthusiastically and giving him a pat on the back. "Do you mind if we... I mean could we swap... if you want to... I'd really lik---"

"Look, kid, I don't want your Stars top with the half sleeves," Tim said and turned on his heel, stalking off the ground with the rest of his teammates.


End file.
